Loom shuttle drive

ABSTRACT

A loom has a sley in which a plurality of rows of shuttles is arranged, and each row has a drive member associated therewith. A control unit is discrete from the sley and provided with rotary drive elements each of which is permanently coupled in motiontransmitting relationship with one of the drive members via an articulated linkage, a flexible shaft or other motiontransmitting means.

Unlted States Patent 1191 1111 3,805,851 Riner Apr. 23, 1974 [54] LOOM SHUTTLE DRIVE 2,923,326 2/1960 Kaffine 139/137 2,773,517 121956 H 1.. 13 14 1751 Inventor: Rmlken 1,057,133 3/1913 133/137 Switzerland 1,306,190 6/1919 Pickstone 139/144 [73] Assignee: Jacob Muller, Frick, Switzerland FOREIGN PATENTS ()R APPLICATIONS 22 Fil d; J l 23, 1971 978,640 11/1950 France 139/138 [21] App! 165353 Primary Examiner-James Kee Chi Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Michael S. Striker [30] Foreign Application Priority Data 1 1 July 27, 1970 Germany 2037200 1511 ABSTRACT A 100m has a siey in which a plurality of rows of shut- [52] 11.8. CI. 139/135, 139/144 tles is arranged, and each row has a drive member as [51] 1 Int. Cl. D03d 35/00, D03d 49/42 sociated therewith. A control unit is discrete from the [58] Field of Search 139/ 135438, s1ey and provided with rotary drive elements each of 139/142, 144, 22, 23, 119, 121 which is permanently coupled in motion-transmitting relationship with one of the drive members via an ar [56] References Cited ticulated linkage, a flexible shaft or other motion UNITED STATES PATENTS 10/1908 Riehl 139/138 transmitting means.

11 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures Om N9 Q 3 ow JL h i- Q L n mm! u a I. 3 I 1L 3 E E JHEHJ Nam av N w? mm g V cm LOOM SHUTTLE DRIVE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to looms, and more particularly to loom shuttle drives, especially for use in ribbon looms.

For the drive of shuttles in looms, especially in ribbon looms, various systems are already known. One of these involves the use of a pair of eccentrics which reciprocates the shuttles via motion-transmitting means including transmission belts, and a rake or drive member. However, this manner of driving the shuttles is inaccurate and constantly requires re-adjustment of the belts because they tend to become elongated under the influence of the pull exerted upon them.

The disadvantages of this arrangement having been realized, attempts were made to overcome them. Thus, the art is aware of constructions wherein transmission of motion from one or several eccentrics to the rake or drive member is effected via a lever or an arm, or in which an alternating rotary movement is produced in a drive unit which is transmitted to the drive member via a gear or a toothed drum. All of these arrangements, however, are suitable only for sleys having a single row of shuttles; they cannot be used for vertical sleys, that is sleys having for each ribbon being produced two or more shuttles which are alternately picked.

In this latter type of arrangement, be the sley of the single or multiple-tier type, upright or lying-down boxes are used which are provided for each row of shuttles with a Coulier device, having pulling hooks into which knives engage which carry out a reciprocatory movement, and which hooks are connected with the rakes or drive members of the individual rows of shuttles. The control of the hooks of the Coulier devices and/or of the knives, which is necessary in order to actuate the respectively appropriate Coulier device, is complicated and subject to breakdown or malfunction. As a result of this picks are sometimes missed, leading to weaving faults or the incorrect rows of shuttles are actuated which can lead to a breakage in the chain and a breakage of the shuttles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, accordingly, a general object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.

More particularly it is anobject of the invention to provide a shuttle drive for looms, especially forribbon looms, and still more particularly for ribbon looms with tiered sleys, which operates without complicated intermediate motion-transmitting arrangements and assures operation free of malfunctions.

In pursuance of the above objects, and others which will become apparent hereafter, one feature of the invention resides in a loom, particularly a ribbon loom having a drive for shuttles which are arranged in a sley in rows each of which has a drive member, and the invention provides for a control unit which is discrete from the sley and provided with a plurality of drive elements one for each drive member, and motionwhich drive the shuttles via gears. This latter type of construction is already known, namely driving the shuttles by the rakes via associated gears.

The motion-transmitting means. utilizes motiontransmitting elements one end of which is connected with the respective drive member and the other end with the respective associated drive element. Such motion-transmitting elements may be articulated motiontransmitting devices, for instance articulated linkages or a cardan drive, or as is currently preferred, a flexible component such as a flexible shaft which is guided in a surrounding sleeve for movement. The control de vice, which in known manner may be provided with eccentrics or analogous control members, is with preferably intermittently turning elements or disk members provided which advantageously are connected via connecting rods with the flexible or articulated motiontransmitting elements and impart to the rakes or drive members a reciprocatory movement via the same.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view illustrating one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an analogous view of another embodiment;

and

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a kardan drive in an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing now FIG. 1, it will be seen that in the perspective illustration thereof I have shown a four-shuttle two-tier arrangement with reference numeral 1 designating the sley and reference numeral 2 the control unit which is discrete from the sley 1. Reference numeral 3 identifies a lateral frame portion of the loom frame.

Mounted in the sley 1 are the non-illustrated conventional rakes or drive members (such as toothed racks) which in turn transmit motion via suitable gears to the respective rows of shuttles which are also not shown. The control device or control unit 2 is connected with the drive members in the sley I by :means of eight flexible shafts 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 which are guided in surrounding sleeves. The shafts 4 and 5 are associated with the uppermost rows of shuttles in the two tiers of the sley l, the shafts 6 and '7' with the second uppermost rows of shuttles, the shafts 8 and 9 withthe next-lower rows of shuttles and the shafts l0 and 11 with the lowermost rows of shuttles, bring connected always at one end with the rakes associated with these rows of shuttles. The opposite ends of the shafts 4 11 are connected in pairs and associated with nonillustrated pistons which are slidably mounted in sleeves 12, 13, 14 and 15, respectively, and whichare driven via connecting rods or piston rods by intermittently rotating disk-shaped drive elements, with only the piston rods 16 and 17 and the drive elements 18 and 19 being visible in the illustration. It will be appretion-transmitting but flexible connection between the control unit 2 (or, more particularly, its drive elements) and the rakes in the sley 1 makes it possible to arrange the control unit 2 at any desired location of the loom or even outside of the latter. Furthermore, it is now no longer necessary for the control unit 2 to be rigidly connected .with the sley 1, as was heretofore the case, thereby increasing the mass of the sley. The control unit 2 can also be located ahead of the sley, that is at the upper part of the frame portion 3 or behind the sley as well as above it, if this is desired or dictated for any reason, for instance by space considerations, because the flexible or articulated connection between the control unit 2 and the sley 1 permits independent forward and rearward movements of the sley in the direction of the double-headed arrow X, as well as unhindered rising and lowering in the direction of the double-headed arrow Y, movements which are necessary in order to selectively move the four separate rows of shuttles to the necessary operating level.

A further advantage of the construction according to the present invention is the fact that the separation of the control unit 2 from the sley 1, that is the fact that it is discrete from the sley 1 and not directly connected therewith, affords a quieter operation of the loom because a one-sided increase in the mass of the sley is now avoided. On the other hand, the continuous motiontransmitting connection between the control units 2 and the sley l, or the rakes therein, which latter are selectively moved to and fro by alternating operation of the intermittently rotating drive elements 18 and 19, eliminates the need for establishing a connection via pawls, knives or other engaging members at the time a particular row of shuttles is to be operated, as is the case in the prior art. Furthermore, the drive of the rakes or drive members is effected via flexible shafts or linkages or a cardan drive in accordance with the invention, and this provides for a positive drive so that the reliability of operation and the avoidance of malfunctions is almost 100 percent. Furthermore, the new shuttle drive, or the transmission of motion between the control unit 2 and the components in the sley 1 is considerably simpler in its construction than anything that is known from the prior art in this field, so that the manufacturingcosts for producing such a drive are much lower than heretofore possible and an almost maintenance-free operation is achieved.

FIG. 2 illustrates in partial view a sley 21 which may have four shuttle rows as in FIG. 1, but which has only a single tier corresponding for instance to the lower half of the sley 1 in FIG. 1. The drive unit 2, whichin FIG. 1 utilizes a mechanical stepwise drive, is shown in FIG. 2 as a pneumatic drive 22. The front panels of the sley 21 are removed to show the interior, especially the drive for the shuttles and the unit 22, as well as the sleeves 23,24 of the flexible shafts 25,26.

Flexible shaft 25 in FIG. 2 corresponds to the shafts 4 and 5 of FIG. 1 and, together with its sleeve 23, it covers (in the drawing) an identical flexible shaft with sleeve which are located behind it and correspond to shafts 6 or 7 of FIG. 1. The shaft 26 with sleeve 24 in turn correspond to shafts 10 or 11 of FIG. 1 and conceal behind them a similar flexible shaft corresponding to shafts 8 or 9 ofFIG. 1. The shafts and 26 drive the shuttle rows 27 and 28, whereas the two concealed shafts drive the shuttle rows 29 and 30.

Three openings are visible in the sley 21, identified with reference numeral 31, through which warp threads are passed. The shuttles of rows 27-30 can pass through the spaces in the warp threads, one row being associated with each opening. The middle row of shuttles has been omitted to facilitate illustration of the drive; only the guides 32,33,34,35 and 36 are visible between which it slides.

The compressed-air container of the pneumatic drive 22 is associated with a compressor 37 via pipe 38, but the container could also be located outside the unit 22. A further pipe or conduit 39 connects the container with the pressure chamber 40 of a control valve 41 which is also provided with a bleeder chamber 42 which communicates with the atmosphere via conduit 43.

Arm 44 of the control valve is connected via a nonillustrated linkage with an eccentric or eccentric chain of any desired type, which serves to selectively move the arm to one of the two illustrated switching positions.

In the illustrated embodiment the valve 41 is switched so that. its chamber 40 is connected with an intermediate valve 46 via pressure conduit 45, whereas a vent conduit 47 connects the valve 46 with the chamber 42. A conduit 48 connects valve 46 with cylinder 50, as does conduit 49, so that piston 51 can be reciprocated when the conduits 48 and 49 -depending upon the position of valve 46 alternately act as pressure and relief conduits. Movement of piston 51 displaces the flexible shaft 25 connected with it in direction of double arrow a, and with it moves the toothed rack (or rake) 52 of the upper row 27 which carries out a shuttle movement in direction of double arrow b. This causes all gears 52, which mesh with rack 52, to turnvand to advance the shuttles of row 27 in direction of double arrow 0 via openings 31 alternately to their right-hand and left-hand positions. Movement of piston 51 displaces arm 54, so that at identical position of the valve 41 the intermediate valve 46 will supply compressed air to cylinder 50 alternately via conduits 48 and 49 whereas the respectively other conduit is vented.

During each movement of the sley 21 the compressor yields a surge of compressed air, which. may be triggered via a non-illustrated interrupter valve interposed in conduit 39 and cooperating with sley 21. If the valve 41 now assumes the illustrated position, the surge passes via chamber 40 and conduit to valve 46 and is supplied by the latter to cylinder 59 via conduit 48 which, in this instance, is the pressure conduit. This causes piston 51 to move right and rack 52 to move left, so that shuttle row 27 is also moved right via gears 53. Air expelled from cylinder flow via conduit 49, valve 46, chamber 42 and conduit 43 to the atmosphere. Movement of piston 51 to the broken-line position also causes displacement of the arm 54 of valve 46 to the broken-line position shown. At unchanged position of valve 41 the next surge is then conducted by valve 46 into the conduit 49, which is now the pressure conduit, from where it is supplied to the cylinder at the opposite end from the previous surge. This causes piston 51 and row 27 to return to their original position. Conduit 48 is now the vent conduit, which permits air leaving the cylinder 50 to be vented to the atmosphere via valve 46, conduit 47, chamber 42 and conduit 43.

The drive for row 28 operates in the same manner, but in mirror-symmetrical sense, when the valve 41 is displaced into the broken-line position, so that the two chambers 40 and 42 become connected via conduits 45' and 47' with the lower valve 46 and are connected via conduits 48 and 49.to cylinder 50'.

Behind cylinder 50 and cylinder 50 (which is arranged mirror-symmetrically to it) are located two identical cylinders which are operated via a similar intermediate valve located behind the valve 41, and whose pistons are connected via the flexible shafts concealed by shafts 25 and 26 with two racks which are concealed behind racks 52 and 52. These concealed racks drive gears 55, 55 which are located behind the gears 53,53 and which cooperate with the teeth of rows 29 and 30, respectively, via gears 56,56.

Thus, the shuttles of each of the four rows 27-30 can be alternately moved via the valve 41 and the similar valve concealed behind it (in the drawing), with motion transmission from unit 22 to sley 21 taking place via the four flexible shafts of which those designated with reference numerals 25 and 26 are visible in the Figure. This continuous motion-transmitting connection between the drive unit and the sley permits transmission of motion to the rows of shuttles without complicated transmitting systems, despite the fact that the sley moves both in the direction of the double arrow x and in that of the double arrow y (see FIG. 1) whereas the drive unit 22 (or 2 in FIG. 1) is stationary.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the invention having a kardan drive. Like reference numerals identify the same elements as previously. Reference numerals 18 and 19 identify rotating drive elements which drive the racks 59 and 60 via the kardan connections 57and 58. The latter utilize lower Kardan Shafts 61 and 62 which engage the elements l8, 19. Further they utilize intermediate kardan shafts 63 and 64 and upper kardan shafts 65 and 66 which cooperate with the gears 67, 68. The latter in turn mesh with the racks 59, 60. The racks 59, 60 may drive the gears 53, 53' of the shuttles 27, 28 directly or be connected with the racks 52, 52', in which case these latter effect a drive of the shuttles.

The kardan shafts 61, 63 and 65 are connected with one another via kardan couplings 69, 70 whereas the kardan shafts 62, 64 and 66 are connected with one another via the kardan couplings 71 and 72. Thus, the kardan connections 57, 58 transmit the rotary motion of the elements 18, 19 firmly but flexibly to the gears 67, 68 so that operation of the novel arrangement can.

take place in the direction of the arrow X as well as in the direction of the arrow Y without hindrance.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a loom shuttle drive, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so 'fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that from the standpoint of prior art fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended. within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims:

1. In a loom, particularly a ribbon loom, having a plurality of movable shuttles which are arranged in rows, in combination, a stationary control unit provided with a plurality of drive elements; a sley provided with said rows, said sley being spaced from said control unit and movable relative to the same; a plurality of shuttle drive members on said sley and each associated with one of said rows; and motion-transmitting means permanently connecting each of said drive elements with one of said drive members, said motion-transmitting means being operative for transmitting motion from the respective drive elements to the associated drive members without said control unit participating in and being influenced by the movement of said sley.

2. In a loom as defined in claim 1, said motiontransmitting means comprising a plurality of motiontransmitting elements each having spaced ends which are respectively connected with one of said drive elements and the cooperating drive member.

3. In a loom as defined in claim 1, said motiontransmitting means comprising a plurality of articulated motion-transmitting elements.

4. In a loom as defined in claim 3, wherein said articulated motion-transmitting elements are articulated linkages.

5. In a loom as defined in claim 3, wherein said motion-transmitting elements are cardan drives.

6. In a loom as defined in claim 1, wherein said motion-transmitting means comprises a plurality of flexible motion-transmitting elements.

7. In a loom as defined in claim 6, wherein said motion-transmitting elements comprise flexible shafts each accommodated and movable in an associated sleeve.

8. In a loom as defined claim 1, said drive elements each comprising an intermittently rotatable component and a linkage component connecting thereto and to said motion-transmitting means. i

9. In a loom as defined in claim 8, wherein the intermittently rotatable components are rotary disks.

10. In a loom as defined in claim 1, said rows of shuttles being arranged on two levels witheach row of the lower level being located beneath a row of the upper level; and wherein said motion-transmitting means comprises a plurality of motion-transmitting elements each associated with one of said drive elements and with the drive members of a row of shuttles of the upper level and of the row of shuttles beneath it on the lower level.

11. In a loom as defined in claim 1, wherein said drive elements drive said rows of shuttles positively viatherespectively associated drive members.

l= t. l 

1. In a loom, particularly a ribbon loom, having a plurality of movable shuttles which are arranged in rows, in combination, a stationary control unit provided with a plurality of drive elements; a sley provided with said rows, said sley being spaced from said control unit and movable relative to the same; a plurality of shuttle drive members on said sley and each associated with one of said rows; and motion-transmitting means permanently connecting each of said drive elements with one of said drive members, said motion-transmitting means being operative for transmitting motion from the respective drive elements to the associated drive members without said control unit participating in and being influenced by the movement of said sley.
 2. In a loom as defined in claim 1, said motion-transmitting means comprising a plurality of motion-transmitting elements each having spaced ends which are respectively connected with one of said drive elements and the cooperating drive member.
 3. In a loom as defined in claim 1, said motion-transmitting means comprising a plurality of articulated motion-transmitting elements.
 4. In a loom as defined in claim 3, wherein said articulated motion-transmitting elements are articulated linkages.
 5. In a loom as defined in claim 3, wherein said motion-transmitting elements are cardan drives.
 6. In a loom as defined in claim 1, wherein said motion-transmitting means comprises a plurality of flexible motion-transmitting elements.
 7. In a loom as defined in claim 6, wherein said motion-transmitting elements comprise flexible shafts each accommodated and moVable in an associated sleeve.
 8. In a loom as defined in claim 1, said drive elements each comprising an intermittently rotatable component and a linkage component connecting thereto and to said motion-transmitting means.
 9. In a loom as defined in claim 8, wherein the intermittently rotatable components are rotary disks.
 10. In a loom as defined in claim 1, said rows of shuttles being arranged on two levels with each row of the lower level being located beneath a row of the upper level; and wherein said motion-transmitting means comprises a plurality of motion-transmitting elements each associated with one of said drive elements and with the drive members of a row of shuttles of the upper level and of the row of shuttles beneath it on the lower level.
 11. In a loom as defined in claim 1, wherein said drive elements drive said rows of shuttles positively via the respectively associated drive members. 